It’s not a walk in the park from here

Government rules do more than simply define what is permissible. They also signal information that influences public behaviour in other areas of life, and so messaging over opening up society again must be mindful of its consequences.

A light in the darkness

Australian and New Zealand nurses are asking everyone to light a candle at 7 pm tonight, Tuesday 12th of May, to commemorate their brave colleagues around the world who have lost their lives to COVID-19 while caring for others.

The return of the ‘Iron Lung’?

Could the use of “Iron lung” ventilators reduce ventilator-associated complications and the death rate in the most severely affected Covid-19 patients?

We need an international inquiry into COVID-19

It’s time to take the global debate about the pandemic out of the hands of Beijing and Washington and reclaim it for the 6.08 billion people who do not live in China or the US.

Is the lockdown doing more harm than good?

It’s better to control the timing, sequence and pace at which restrictions are eased, with built-in flexibility to bring some back should infection numbers shoot up again, than to lose control of the agenda.

Working out how to fight COVID together

Social and behavioural sciences can help us get the most out of the COVID-19 regulations, according to Aussie and international researchers who have listed some recommendations for different stages of the pandemic.

Give Victorians the facts on the abattoir outbreak

The Victorian government’s refusal to name the meat-packing plant at the centre of a COVID-19 hotspot places the public at risk, and threatens to erode the mutual trust required to fight the pandemic together.

Balancing the lives we save and lose through lockdown

The unprecedented social and economic lockdown has prevented many deaths from coronavirus, but this is at the cost of other lives, as well as national and individual livelihoods, and the accounting behind the calculation needs to be made clear.

Behavioural economics can boost the government’s COVID app

The government’s new COVID tracing app may need 80% of us to use it to work properly and help lift the restrictions. Unless it is made mandatory, private and social incentives may be required to encourage public adoption.

New QUT model offers a glimmer of hope

Covidwave.org, a new, more accurate pandemic predictor devised at QUT, suggests the worst of the crisis has passed in Australia, but that there will be many more deaths elsewhere.

Journal of the plague year

Universities around the world are collaborating to crowd-source coronavirus accounts and create an archive of the COVID-19 epidemic for future historians to study.

Is mechanical ventilation exacerbating the COVID-19 death toll?

Health services around the world have scrambled to amass more mechanical ventilators to help the patients most adversely affected by COVID-19, but the use of these machines involves risks of its own, and careful management and nursing.